Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-02-19

1
from her painful revery TO pace the floor
with nervous steps. rThis torment is too
great to be long endured. That strange
woman whom Norah saw him walking with
on the cllffs-this sudden and unexplained
vlst TO Halifax at this unwonted hour!
Since he will not tell me his secret, must
find it out;
Her distress and curios h at length be-
came 50 overmasterins that she suddenly
resolved upon step the mere thought of
which, under cooler and less tunultueue
conditions, would have caused her d self
accusing blush. She determined to insti-
tute surreptitious search into certain
secret drawer Of her husbands secretary,
which he had always kept jealousy guarded
under the plea of its contain ny precious
documents pertaining to his estate that il
would be better never to disturb.
| She did blush little upon coming II
this determination, but, overpcwered as
she was by her growing sdspicions, she
nevertheless hasteeed to carry it out She
swept into the cabinet containing the desk,
which adjoined the drawing room, and,
ny means of bunch OF kevs
that hung from one Of the Enclosures,
opened it without nuch difficulty. The
secret private drawer had been pointed out
TO her before, and, after brief investiga-
ton, neither did she find much trouble in
opening this also by pressing 8 small
spring hidden underneath The wood.
She had hardly expected to find therein
anything but the business documents
ei which he had limited. But, to her sur
prise, the drawer contained nothing but
some torn fragments of letter and copy
OF an English NEWSPAPER. The letter frag-
:nents west so minute that hardly an en-
hi~ word could be made out ON any one of
them, but the writing was obviously in q
womans hand, and finally, upon one of
the larger morsels, she deciphered tho
word "Estelle, with a little flourish Under
meath, which caused her to deem it the let
ter p signature.
She greedily deyoured the contents of
the newspaper. 1t gave an account of a
London divorce trial of five years previ-
ously, in which Archibald Monteith sued
for divorce against Estelle Monteith, his
wife, upon charges of gross crimirality and
misconduct, whose details the fair reader
avoided with shuddering disgust, and the
bare Characterization of whicE caused her
| cheeks 10 burn. She only read enough of
the reports to learn that the injured hus-
bands plea had ultimately been granted,
and the faithless wife thrust away from
him forever, despised and branded in all
| good women's eyes, and was wondering
what interest on earth her Archie could have
in boarding up this relic of another mans
miserable marriage experience, when q
! light step upon the carpet of the adjoining
room, whose communicating door she mad
left half a jar, caused her to start up and
thrust the paper back into the drawer, with
a blush of guilty fright and confusion.
1t only proved to be the step of Norah,
her maid, however, who had come to tell
her mistress that Luncheon had been served,
and to know if she should seek the master.
81 will come at once; Mr.. Delorme will
not be here till dinner time" said Hilda,
dlsmissing the servant with a gesture, and
drawing great breath of relief.
She then gathered up all the fragments
of the letter and put them, with the news
paper, i'll her pocket, with the intention of
secretly piecing them together in their Or
iginal shape and mastering the purport of
the entire epistle, which she felt intuitively
was in some mysterious way connected
with her husbands secret; after which she
| left the secretary as she had found it, and
went to the dining room.
| But she had neither heart nor appetite
for the expensive and admirably served
collation. that was awaiting her there. After
slipping cup of tea and nervously playing
with two or three dishes, she fastened to
lock herself in her boudoir, where, with q
broad sheet of cardboard in her lap and
a tiny pot of mucilage at hand, she lost no
time in trying to arrange the morsels of
the letter in harmony with their context.
1t had luckily been written upon but one
side of q leaf of letter paper, which con-
siderably facilitated her self-imposed task;
but the fragments were so minute and ir-
regular that she labored for hours inetfec-
tually, and at last the sun went down upon
an unfinished work.
1t was finally with feeling of WEAKNESS
and disgust with the world in general. ard
herself in particular, that she put away the
materials upon which she had been en-
gagged, and gave yawning sigh of dis
! satisfaction; and, moment later, her maid
| Knocked at her door, to say that Mr.. De-
lorme had returned from the city alone
though it was his usual custom to bring
back q guest or two with him-and was
dressing for dinner.
After the manner of many of the English
upper classes, Mr.. and Mrs. Delorme occu-
pied separate apartments. Without open
ing the door of her boudoir, Hilda called
out to the servant that she would be down
resen!ly, without requiring the usual as
sistance in dressing; and then, leaning
her head pensively on her hand,
remained for some moments gazing
out of her window, which opened upon a
4 magnificent marine view, with the bound
| less eXpanSe of blue ocean in the distance
and charming intervening features of cliff
and SHORE. interspersed with betting wood
IInds, cultivated fields, and fishing hu.s,
over which the red light of the setting sun
slept peacefully and bright.
| Suddenly she started, c,enched her
hands, and breathed painfully, while the
petulant discomfort that had brooded in Ler
beautiful eyes all day lightened into a
moody flash, as she perceived the lonely
figure of woman moving far away upon
the edge of the -beetling cliff, and now
and then turning her head as though to
watch the isolated and stately mansion in
which she, Hilda Delorme, the Young mis-
tress, was then sitting.
1t must be she-the very same that
Norah saw him walking with this morning."
she muttered, bitterly. sob! what can it
| mean, and why am l tortured thus?"
She watched the figure with resentful
looks until it disappeared behind jutting
rock. Then she arose with a great and
stormy tumult in her soul, and paced the
floor with unsteady steps. Another sum-
mons from Norah, to the effect that dinner
was waiting, caused her to rally oil he:
powers of self-control to her aid, after
which she went down to dinner without
making her evening toilet, which was
something she had not done before since
her marriage. Her husband greeted her
with his customary kindness, but his fit of
moody abstraction seemed to have increased
so much that he did not appear to notice
| the incongruty of her morning costume,